Area's with full detail?

  • J van E
    • #1

    I reinstalled AFS2 again this weekend and for now I only installed Orbx's LOWI because I can't stand scenery where there are no 3D buildings and only random trees. I did fly around default San Francisco but between the airport and the city there is a huge area which is completely barren, no buildings at all, so I won't fly there again. Now I do remember that around Denver, the latest free region, there actually were buildings all over the place so I might install Utah too. This leads me to the following question:

    Are there any more area's in Aerofly FS 2 which have FULL detail, so buildings everywhere, like in LOWI or around Denver? Where you can fly around for 10 to 30 minutes without seeing just flat photoreal scenery without buildings? (Is that btw indeed the case around Denver...?) Yesterday I had a great and quite lengthy flight in the C172 around LOWI but it would be nice if there were a few more places to fly around.

    EDIT

    Come to think of it... not even the New York DLC offers enough detail to fly around for longer than a few minutes without seeing barren photoreal... In fact, even while flying over Manhattan you can see barren land in the near distance. So I doubt if there actually are any area's of interest for me. Guess I'll have to wait for FTX Netherlands then.

    • #2

    It's like that but since I'm a real pilot and deal with FAA level D simulator often I find AF2 fantastic and smooth with details at airports ... I love this difference from FSX etc where I'd avoid detailed airports for frame rate reasons ... get the USA hi res free scenery... no autogen but looks great

    • #3

    no autogen but looks great

    Can't say I think the same about that. ;) Which was the entire point of my post.

    • #4

    What about Switzerland: fly in the Alps, no houses, no trees needed up there :)

    • #5

    In Colorado, as well as Denver the areas of Aspen and Telluride have autogen buildings. Utah is the same as other regions.

    The Orbx PNW and Netherlands regions will be amazing to have in AFS2 this year. Just think about all of that beautiful autogen. :S

    • #6

    I'll have to agree with j van e that afs2 looks amazing especially in VR. The feeling of being alone in the sky keeps me going back to p3d more and more however. The alive feeling of the ngx737, mytraffic 6 and as16 with changing (and historical) weather options and all sorts of moving maps combined with pfpx is hard to beat. Admitted, the frames are much lower but 100 % fluidity doesn't keep me busy eather. I've dropped photoscenery in p3d because of massive hard disk space and overall dull appearance.
    Afs2 has lots of potential but I bought it 19 months ago and there is not an awefull lot that has changed. Orbx and q400 are nice though.

    Grtz

    Jozef

    • #7

    In Colorado, as well as Denver the areas of Aspen and Telluride have autogen buildings. Utah is the same as other regions.

    My bad. Colorado was the last region indeed, not Utah, and Colorado has a few area's that are dressed up. So I think I will install Colorado now: hopefully that region plus LOWI will keep me entertained until FTX Netherlands has been released,

    • #8

    The desert regions are pretty awesome to fly around and admire, especially Utah. Apart from Salt Like City there are only a few small towns which are avoidable.

    • #9

    You might like the Monterey Bay, Chicago, and the upcoming Eagle County and Jackson Hole Orbx sceneries.

    Regards,

    Ray

    • #10

    Las Vegas area seems to be well done with custom buildings also.

    Regards,

    Ray

    • #11

    I can say the only things I miss very much in AFS2 are ATC, real weather, aircraft controls and instruments (like FMC) that with patience will come up soon. As for the DLC scenery itself, I find it very-very detailed, and the ORBX's ones extremely well detailed, no complaints in that segment. The fact that there are no sim crashes, no stutters and a lot of more scenery detail with great fluidity makes me sometimes forget my P3D's (3.4 and 4.1).

    Cheers, Ed

    • #12

    I can say the only things I miss very much in AFS2 are ATC, real weather, aircraft controls and instruments (like FMC) that with patience will come up soon.

    The ONLY things... well, the things you mentioned are the most important things of a flight sim imho. ;) And you will need YEARS of patience before all that will be available in AFS2. (Or AFS3 or AFS4.) You might want to skip that word 'soon' here. But well, as it is now I like AFS2 for what it is and if I really need some serious simming I have P3D waiting for me. Although I also have to add that after flying the Majestic Q400 for quite some time the AFS2 'default' Q400 is pretty amazing...! Apart from the FMS it seems to do everything my Majestic Q400 does. Well, for regular daily use anyway. I just flown that Q400 from Aspen to Denver, in VR, and it was quite enjoyable. I have to admit. Even in VR. Which is pretty nice after all... LOL I just wish there was ONE sim who combined the best of all sims into one... Well, okay, maybe AFS5 will be that sim one fine day. 8o

    • #13

    Ok you're right about the sim crashes....afs2 never ever crashed on me. P3d countless times but v4 seems to be doing quite well on my system.

    • #14

    There will probably never be full photo scenery offered of the whole continents of Europe or North America that include detailed 3D scenery everywhere. The size of the sceneries would be prohibitive. I think the size of all the North America sceneries in Megascenery was around 2TB, and that had relatively modest resolution and no 3D objects.

    Of course times change, drive prices drop and download speeds increase. I shouldn't have said "never" lol.

    But if you are unhappy with FS 2, there are plenty of alternatives to keep you happy.

    • #15

    It seems to me that as it becomes easier to create autogen, and more people, especially developers become more comfortable with using the existing tools, as well as expanding them, that we will eventually start seeing huge areas covered with autogen from osm and other sources.

    My biggest concern is actually getting trees under control.

    Even after years of effort, even X-plane orthoscenery is plagued with trees everywhere.

    • #16

    There will probably never be full photo scenery offered of the whole continents of Europe or North America that include detailed 3D scenery everywhere. The size of the sceneries would be prohibitive. I think the size of all the North America sceneries in Megascenery was around 2TB, and that had relatively modest resolution and no 3D objects.

    The 3D objects aren't the problem here: they need only a very small fraction of the space the photo scenery need! Orbx said that the Netherlands alone, being a small country, will take up some 30 GB. I also don't expect whole continents very soon but I would be very happy already with a few small regions that have detail EVERYWHERE. I am sure FTX Netherlands will fit the bill and also PNW, which has also been announced. I have spend YEARS in PNW alone and also in FTX Norway so I am not asking for continents: I just want a few regions that have 3D stuff all over the place (well placed, that is). I just can't stand empty photoreal. ;)

    • #17

    The truth is that everything is taking too long with FS 2. I have complained about this too many times myself. The bottom line with this sim is that you can either enjoy it as-is while you wait, or you can't. IPACS is well aware that we aren't happy about the pace of updates, but after all this time I have just come to accept it, even if I do not like it. And I don't like it! I think sooner or later they are going to get "skunked" when X-Plane or Lockheed Martin figures out how to do VR correctly. That would be very sad if it happens. FS 2 has so much going for it, but IPACS has to get going.

    • #18

    The truth is that everything is taking too long with FS 2. I have complained about this too many times myself. The bottom line with this sim is that you can either enjoy it as-is while you wait, or you can't. IPACS is well aware that we aren't happy about the pace of updates, but after all this time I have just come to accept it, even if I do not like it. And I don't like it! I think sooner or later they are going to get "skunked" when X-Plane or Lockheed Martin figures out how to do VR correctly. That would be very sad if it happens. FS 2 has so much going for it, but IPACS has to get going.

    100% agreed. It is why I didn't touch AFS2 for over half a year. And only after all that time I can enjoy it again for what it is. I am certain though that if I would fly AFS2 only I would get sick and tired of everything again pretty soon. Which is why I also will keep flying in P3D. I am just trying to enjoy the best of both sims. But it's hard. The idea alone that it will take years before we get weather in AFS really sucks. But well... I don't want to repeat that over and over again... ;)

    • #19

    Problem is that iPacs does not have a development team big enough to make good velocity. I'm in software and web developement in daily life, and I see how slow pace is with just 3 developers. LM just puts 10 devs on a feature. It gets paid for in the end, but they also have the pockets deep enough to just start developing on that scale. As did MS back in the day.

    I agree that progress is slow. IPACS' only real advantage is that XP and P3D are both running on much older code bases and therefore will have to start from scratch to catch up. They will do that sooner or later, but that's a program years in the making.

    What I find really sucks is that Condor V2 is on the virge of bein released. Even though it's ugly, it might be VR compatible. That would mean AFS2 goes in the fridge for a long time.

    • #20

    Condor V2 ...hihi, they write since ? 5 ? years it will come ... ? believe me, not this and not next year,
    and not with VR, they only fantasize...

    And when you write something what they didnt like on their forum, youll be deletet ...

    this has nothing to do with customer friendliness, so i quit to look for condor, you cannot trust them.